Chapter 13: Coincidence.

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Translated and Edited by: luccayn.

Common Honorifics:
-san: A polite suffix, but not excessively formal.
-kun: A common suffix among friends and younger people.
-chan: A common suffix among people you're close with, mostly used for feminine nicknames and girls, since it's cutesy and childlike.
-senpai: A common suffix and noun used to address or refer to one's older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club.

T/N: Had to translate the joke a little bit. Sorry :P

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“211 coffins. 212 coffins. 213 coffins…”

tomorrow had arrived, and it was the day Tsukino would confess.

As for me, I decided to skip school and lie on the grass on the hill of a park close by. I was just there, chilling and counting coffins as I stared at the clouds above.

By the way, it seems that the reason people count sheep when they can’t sleep is because the English words “sleep” and “sheep” are similar. In other words, it’s logical for Japanese people to count the number of “water lilies” (睡蓮 — Suiren), which is similar to “sleep” (睡眠 — Suimin) instead of sheep.

That wasn’t why I was counting coffins though. In the end, I could only conclude my feeling of wanting to bury that cunning schemer was somehow connected to coffins (棺 — Hitsugi) and not sheep (羊 — Hitsuji).

“Ugh. I don’t get it.”

The sky was a refreshing shade of blue, seemingly indifferent to my feelings. If Hareta was the one to lay down on the grass, even the heavens might sympathize and the sky would be overcast, as if it were about to rain, all to provide him with some shade. As par for the course in my case, the world was incredibly unresponsive. Would it hurt for it to be a little more accommodating?

Sigh.

I digress. What I couldn’t understand, however, was the way Tsukino was acting yesterday. Sure, I knew the answer led to a love conundrum, but the questions that came to mind were more, “Why do harems exist?” or perhaps “What happened between Tsukino and me in the past?” or maybe even “The legitimacy of a change of heart.”

Perhaps, it’s possible that it was all just a misunderstanding on my part. I should even consider the possibility that it’s all a big joke, with the heroines coming out from behind the scenes holding a sign saying, “It’s just a prank bro!” as revenge for mocking Hareta.

…No. That didn’t quite fit.

Reality sure was absurd. My story’s supposed to be a detective thriller, so couldn’t there be at least some mystery?

“Damn.”

It seems I need to grasp not just faint fragments, but the definite outline of Tsukino’s past. It wouldn’t be too late to consider the mysteries I should be thinking about from there.

“What’s on your mind today?” A voice rang from nearby. And I recognized it instantly.

No… No. To be more precise, I recalled what that voice sounded like when it was more high-pitched, less developed, and years younger. It’d be more accurate to say I recognized her mocking tone.

I raised my head and turned back to look. There stood a girl in a sailor uniform, her many unforgettable traces clear to me.

“Are you… Saori-chan?”

“Pfft. Hahaha! Saori-chan?! Even though you’re a dude in high school, you’re still calling me by that cutesy nickname? Ahaha!”

Mocking me like that was just plain rude. Also, her witty comeback was quite the shock, enough to make me forget to give a retort of my own. Why was she here in the first place? I never told Tsukino where I’d be, so there’s no way she’d know through her.

“—Did you maybe think something like that?”

Seems like she’s still as good at reading minds as she was in the past. I never knew how she always knew what was going through my head with pinpoint accuracy. Not then, not now.

Even though she has no groundwork or evidence, she always somehow knows exactly to say, nailing it as if she were some kind of medium. That’s why there was no way to prevent it, either.

“Predictable and unavoidable… Is that it?” She guessed right again.

“What’s this, a canon losing event?”

“I’ll leave the rhetoric to you.”

“Then let’s call it the Butterfly Effect.”

“Good name. I like it.”

Moving on…

It’s rare to see a girl exuding such an aura of “mystery.” She’s very petite, with long chestnut-colored hair that’s fluffy and loosely curled. The mixture of intellectuality and childishness is a major factor in her aura.

Her extremely droopy eyes still suggest a lack of enthusiasm in me, but many guys would find it adorable, just like I used to. Her unnaturally pale skin was almost unhealthy, too.

Seriously, she’s so tiny it feels like she hasn’t grown at all since elementary school. It felt strange as if she came straight out of my memories.

“Let’s finish the greetings first, Saori-chan. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Hello, Shin-chan. It’s been a while.”

With a more formal tone, she addressed me the way she used to. It was just as condescending as I remember it, as if she was looking down on me.

“So, how did you know I was here?”

“Why did I come here, you mean?”

“I just asked the one who seemed likely to tell me.”

“That’s true. But it’s simple. Your helping Michiru is done today. So, you thought you’d come here to savor that sense of accomplishment. You’re the type who doesn’t share joy or sadness with others. It’s all so you.”

Come to think of it, Michiru once mentioned she kept in touch with Saori. Their relationship must be better than I thought since this all happened before anything hit the girls’ network of gossip.

Still.

“Too bad, but you’re off the mark. I’m not feeling gloomy for that reason.”

“Then, you failed, huh? What kind of failure was it?”

“You probably already know. It’s in bad taste to confirm it with the person in question, Saori-chan.”

“Hehe. As usual, Shin-chan, you’re not surprised at all. How uninteresting.”

—How uninteresting.

Those were words I heard many times back then. Memories echoed, leaving me with a feeling a bit more complex than nostalgia.

“You being here doesn’t make sense though. After all, today is a weekday, and classes are happening right now. You skipping school to come see me just doesn’t click.”

“Wow, you’ve gotten quite good at comebacks, I’m impressed.”

Saying that, she sat next to me and lightly bumped her body against my upper arm. Wanting to always be slightly above the other person was her way of “praising”, and showing her personality.

“Don’t try to deceive me. Convince me instead,” I continued.

Hmm, well. For example, maybe I secluded myself in my room out of guilt for something terrible I did to Shin-chan. And I mustered up the courage to come out of the house because I really wanted to apologize?”

“Nope. I know you wear that uniform every day. Besides, you know where I live, so you could have apologized anytime.”

“Aww, you’re too strong. Scary.”

“And you’re creepy, Saori-chan.”

Then, she put her index finger to her lips and pondered. Eventually, just when I had completely forgotten how many coffins I had counted in my head, she spoke up. Her eyes shone mysteriously as she did.

“Well, Michiru’s transformation was obvious, wasn’t it? You looked into her past, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know the whole picture. I’m just assuming the fragmented episodes and the cliché story I’ve concocted are the truth in my mind.”

“‘The truth in my mind,’ huh? Well, there probably isn’t much difference from reality. If you’re not confident, maybe you’re not wrong, you just don’t know the details.”

It was an oddly fitting expression. Indeed, there’s some truth to that.

“But don’t put too much stock in it. It’s really not that big of a deal.”

“I’m not putting too much stock in it. After all, Shin-chan has never been wrong since that class trial.”

…We haven’t seen each other since we graduated from elementary school. In other words, she has managed to see through everything based solely on the conversation we’ve had here since our reunion just now.

Truly terrifying, she was. But if she’s that perceptive, then maybe I can guess the reason she came here in the first place.

“You’re interested in what I’m going to do from now on, aren’t you? That’s why you came to see me.”

“That’s right. Compared to this mystery, school lessons are like appetizers.”

I’m the type of person who’d eat anything, but it’s not the time for this type of remark.

“That’s not enough to convince me, Saori-chan. You’re not that interested in me.”

“The level of interest I have in you inside my heart is not as thin as you think. You get what I mean, right?”

“What? Did you like me or something?”

In an instant, her cheeks puffed up like a balloon, and then she blew out the air from her tiny lips all at once.

Saori-chan laughed innocently, just like she did back then. She laughed so much that it made me feel exhausted. At her overly innocent appearance, I couldn’t even remember why I was counting coffins.

Finally, she gently tapped my shoulder and took a deep breath.

“That would be you, wouldn’t it? Shin-chan.”

Her whisper was sweet as a devil’s.

Unable to bear it, I looked away, forcibly calming my racing heart, then turned back to her immediately. She had already returned to her teasing smile from earlier.

“Do you know which school I attend?” She asked me.

“I don’t.”

“It’s Shu’un Academy. It was difficult to get in.”

Shu’un Academy is a prestigious private high school boasting the highest entrance exam difficulty in the prefecture. As Saori-chan mentioned, while the entrance exam is notoriously challenging, the school rules and attendance are left entirely to the student’s discretion.

In other words, as long as you can get good grades on tests, you can do whatever you want.

“I see. So, there’s no need to attend classes in the first place.”

In other words, it was just a coincidence.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that I was interrupting Saori-chan’s usual walking route. I approached her because Tsukino happened to come up in conversation while we were in touch.

As I expected, her interest wasn’t in me. Instead, her approach was all because I was involved in Tsukino’s love story.

“By the way, I just picked out a cute one from a thrift store and started wearing it. There’s no designated uniform.”

“That’s nice. Being smart allows you to do as you please.”

“Right? Feel free to envy me to your heart’s content.”

…I liked her gesture of being confident and absolutely certain about everything, yet still wanting to be praised by someone, showing her vulnerability.

You haven’t changed, Saori-chan. You really are still the same girl I knew back then.

“So, what are you actually going to do?”

“I’m not involved. Tsukino’s wish is to date that guy, Hareta. It has nothing to do with me.”

“So, you’re trying to force Tsukino to be with someone she doesn’t like?”

“Setting aside whether she likes him or not, that’s the agreement we made.”

“I see. It seems kind of cruel.”

Cruel?

“Surely, if you ‘persuade’ her, Tsukino will end up dating that guy. She’s not strong enough to evade your rhetoric. She’ll probably be persuaded and somehow succeed.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“It’s a big problem. Even though she’s not a noble, she’s being forced to become someone’s girlfriend against her will. Isn’t that a new form of bullying?”

“That’s a bit disrespectful to Hareta, isn’t it?”

Saori-chan cleared her throat and tilted her head. I couldn’t understand why she seemed so eager for an answer that she ended up making a slip of the tongue.

Could it be that she has something to gain from me acknowledging Tsukino’s feelings?

“You see, Shin-chan, no matter how much you pretend to be a villain, you’re just a guy who can only get off to vanilla, missionary s*x. You could never abandon a poor girl.”

“For a genius, that was kinda crude, wasn’t it? Also, you didn’t answer.”

“I have to say, I want to pat myself on the back for capturing your essence into a phrase so well. But you wouldn’t feel good at all unless you saw the other person’s face during it, right?”

“It’s hard for virgins to get it, damn it!”

She just chuckled at me, and I wondered if she’d climbed several steps up the ladder of adulthood. I had a tinge of jealousy, I admit.

“Don’t worry. I’m still a virgin,” she continued.

“Shut up! What the hell are you even on about!? So annoying!”

“Bit loud, aren’t you?”

“You don’t know anything! F*ck!”

And with that, I stood up and walked away from her, descending the stairs down the hill.

“Oh? Just where are you going?”

“To school! I didn’t want to see you anyway!”

“How cruel.”

On my way down the hill, I glanced back at Saori-chan just once. She had been watching me the whole time. Our eyes met, she waved her hand slightly, and then…

“See you later, Shin-chan. Let’s talk more slowly next time.”

I really wish she’d cut me some slack.

I broke into a sweat, vowing never to come here at this time again. With that, I headed to the station.

…In the end, she didn’t tell me the true reason why she knew where I was.

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